What the class of 2021 thinks about social media

First-year college students’ love for social media is growing, and most of that love continues to go to three social networks in particular – Youtube, Snapchat and Instagram.

Those three finished 1-2-3 in my annual survey of first-year School of Journalism and Mass Communication students at Drake University. I gave the survey on the Friday of the first week of classes (so the end of their first week as college students).

A total of 71 first-year students took the survey. They ranged in age from 17 to 19.

The survey asks students to rate social networking sites from 1 (hate it) to 5 (love it). This is the fifth year I’ve conducted the survey, and Youtube, Snapchat and Instagram have finished as the top three networks all five years. For the past four years, those three networks have clearly been separated from others at the top of the list.

How the class of 2021 rated social networks

This year, I asked students to rate 14 social networks from 1 (hate it) to 5 (love it). Here are the results:

2017 rating

Love it (5)

Hate it (1)

Youtube

4.56

47

0

Snapchat

4.54

48

1

Instagram

4.32

40

2

Twitter

3.77

27

6

GroupMe

3.73

18

3

Messenger

3.62

16

4

Pinterest

3.45

18

6

Facebook

3.37

10

3

tumblr

3.04

8

8

Reddit

2.76

4

10

Houseparty

2.7

5

11

Linkedin

2.68

2

12

WhatsApp

2.65

7

15

Tinder

2.37

3

19

About the students

A total of 71 first-year students took the survey (last year there were 56).

They all own a smartphone (59 own an iPhone, 11 an Android and one said they own an “other” smartphone).

Twenty-three of them own a tablet (that’s the same percentage-wise as last year’s survey).

When asked on what device they spend the most time (smartphone, tablet or computer), 62 said smartphone, 8 said computer and one said tablet.

I asked them to rate how they feel about social media in general (1=hate and 5=love), and the average score was 4.18. This was up from a score of 4.05 last year and 3.88 the year before. Twenty-nine said they love it and no one said they hate it.

I asked them to rate how they feel about new technology in general, and the average score was 4.35. This is down from 4.39 last year but up from 4.29 the year before. Thirty-five said they love new technology and one said they hate it.

How they’re using these networks

In addition to the survey, I discuss the networks with students to try to get a sense of exactly how they are being used. Here’s my best explanation what they use four of the top networks for:

Snapchat – This is where they communicate with friends on a day-to-day basis. It’s where they are most likely to create content.

Twitter – This is where they are connected with friends and go to see funny posts. They’re active, but not necessarily creating original content.

Instagram – This is where they are connected with friends and post a very edited version of their life – maybe one post every one or two weeks tops. They don’t like the story feature.

Facebook – They’re only here to communicate with family and because classes make them (a few of them referred to this as being on Facebook for “business” reasons).

Past results

Here’s how those numbers compare to past years.

Network

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

Youtube

4.46

4.51

4.28

4.54

4.56

Snapchat

4.04

4.16

4.37

4.48

4.54

Instagram

3.99

4.25

4.33

4.52

4.32

Twitter

3.93

3.73

3.55

3.79

3.77

GroupMe

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

3.73

FB Messenger

N/A

N/A

3.38

3.52

3.62

Pinterest

3.65

3.84

3.72

3.88

3.45

Facebook

3.71

3.38

3.18

3.57

3.37

tumblr

3.44

3.24

3.14

3.23

3.04

Reddit

N/A

N/A

N/A

2.91

2.76

Houseparty

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

2.7

LinkedIn

2.71

2.62

2.58

2.95

2.68

WhatsApp

N/A

2.47

2.61

2.71

2.65

Tinder

N/A

N/A

2.13

2.5

2.37

Vine

3.81

3.67

3.37

3.52

N/A

Periscope

N/A

N/A

2.39

2.89

N/A

YikYak

N/A

N/A

2.75

2.52

N/A

Google+

2.85

2.79

2.53

2.5

N/A

foursquare

2.59

2.47

2.43

2.45

N/A

kik

N/A

N/A

N/A

2.32

N/A

Myspace

1.82

1.74

1.79

2.14

N/A

More social media results

I asked them on which networks they spend the most time:

Network

Responses

Snapchat

25

Twitter

15

Instagram

14

Youtube

8

Facebook

3

Groupme

2

Messenger

2

Pinterest

2

I asked them on which network they create the most content:

Network

Responses

Snapchat

33

Instagram

23

Twitter

11

Facebook

1

Groupme

1

tumblr

1

Youtube

1

I also asked them which networks they have used in the past month:

Network

Responses

Snapchat

71

YouTube

67

Facebook

64

Instagram

64

GroupMe

58

Twitter

53

Messenger

49

Pinterest

33

tumblr

24

Tinder

16

Reddit

11

Sarahah

9

Houseparty

9

Whatsapp

8

Kik

6

LinkedIn

5

YikYak

2

Periscope

2

Foursquare

0

Myspace

0

Meerkat

0

My takeaways

Not a lot has changed in how these students view and use social networks in the past five years. For marketers trying to reach this demographic, there are clearly three places to target – Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube. I think YouTube is probably being underutilized by many people trying to reach this demographic.

Twitter appears to be coming back. It’s rating did not change from last year, but it is clearly a place where these students are spending time and creating content.